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Somebody did not pay attention to an important FACT in Thom's blog. In every study that's been done on private charter schools- parents pay more and results are not better. I think this clearly points out political and religious motivations are also involved in the elimination of the Public School system. How dare a teacher's union stand up for the rights of "WE THE PEOPLE ", and coincidentally vote that way? Fossils are real, trickle down is a lie!
It is not wealth for wealths sake alone. It is for power and influence. These people are new age bigots separating themselves from the rest with a social cast system, private schools for their children,
and exclusive residents. They influence and bribe public officials, senators , representatives , local government officials and media. We have set up a system of public admiration for them as the movers and shakers of the world while we ignore the independent thinkers and stewards or ethics. Even churches and religions bend to the wealthy for concessions. I heard a quote by the leader of Nepal some years ago saying that he did not measure his country by gross national product but by gross national happiness of it's citizens. We have forgotten humility in this nation and the joy of what it means to be satisfied with independence. Our current economy can only be described as cannibalism.
I believe the future of a stable economy is in equitable wealth based on caring for others. When we provide stewardship for feeding our hungry, education our work force, and inspiring a society where the common good is recognized by free democratic choice can we avert the current disaster we now live in. There certainly is a solution for the future. It is all a matter of how each individual manages greed and how we manage our resources. Currently we as a nation do much in distributing chaos by encouraging violence and even selling the instruments of war through out the world. It may be see as a cliche' but I believe we will reap what we sow. On the other hand we have a choice. We can instead distribute hope , peace and justice more fiscally productive with more positive return.
Palendrom No one said Dems were without flaws Obama has done a decent job against all odds- having taken on 28 yrs of Reagan Bush GOP wealth favoring policies - 3 huge tax cuts and 2 wars - ALL dumped in his lap just 2 + years ago. I give him credit for trying - working hard every day while Fox GOP & pals demonize him- calling him most vile names. Fact is : US has lived lived under Reaganomics deregulation- debt- unfunded tax cuts- Bush 1-2 Cheney / Goldman FED 's fat cat policies- con courts- 3 huge unfunded GOP tax cuts and long wars- one based on lies & war profits ..incurring massive debt from Reagan 1981 .- Bush Paulson 2008 global crash TARP GOP has no candidate to offer that can compete on any issue. Obama has a record Like it or not We know who- what he stands for. He has my vote
Tom, maybe you or you listeners can help. In Los Angeles, the LAUSD has fired the librarians and many of the libraries in the (non Charter) schools have been locked. (Literally!!) Students cannot use the libraries or take advantage of the books in them. They have also started a new computer cataloging system but they refuse to teach the current librarians how to use it because they don't know who will be left with a librarian job come September. What it means is that the thousands of books that have been checked out but never returned will be lost. Students with books outstanding will not be able to be tracked in order to get them back.
The fact that school libraries are locked and librarians dismissed is the death knell for education in public schools here in Los Angeles. The worst part of this LAUSD plan is that the classropm teachers will be acting as librarians for their students. Librarians have advanced degrees in Library Science and know things that regular classroom teachers cannot possibly know in order to help students learn to research complex subjects. It is bad enough that budget cuts always seem to come from schools, the poor and others without a voice, but now, they are destroying the students' ability to learn how to research. I understand that an educated citizenry is dangerous to many individual politicians, but what will this do to our future?
LAUSD is more than happy to cut funds from teachers, books, lunches and class offerings and yet, they are willing to spend $130 million for building one school. Contractors are crooked and not audited. One example is that my wife was a library aide several years ago at a public elementary school. Her library was remodeled. The cost was to have been $75,000. Two years later, her little library was finally finished. The cost was $250,000. Many days workers would not show up, or else one or two would. In the end, the work turned out to be shoddy. No accountability by either the contractors or the School Board. Again, who suffered? The kids.
Is there anybody these poor librarians can turn to? Are there any voices out there who could help turn this around?
Ryan's plan to lower the top tax rate by 10% is wrong. Instead he should lower the middle tax rate by 10%.
Thom You betcha R & D alike have been Duped - swindled- manipulated by fear tactics Lied to Led to 2008 Bush Paulson global crash / edge of depression / 700 billion TARP with NO rules to protect taxpayers. NOW RYAN / GOP demands even more corp & billionaire tax cuts in this economy ! That's not only greedy but totally irresponsible Its a shame the GOP / cons / baggers have not figured that out....yet
Gerald Please get some help Go to church do something This anti Christ stuff is getting old and sounds so nutty
But it is not just the Republican Party that is telling the lies and playing the citizens for dupes and idiots...the Democratic Party does a great job of doing the same thing. Granted, there are more Democrats than Republicans that appear to be supportive of their constituents but most are still bought off by the cold hard reality that "he who has the gold...rules". We will not make any improvements to our condition by playing politics as usual. Reelecting Obama is just complicating the situation. We need to break the two party system and reject voting for anyone who is supported by the monied interests. In California, Jerry Brown beat out the wealthy competition and we need to repeat that in the Presidency. Obama is just about as much a liar as Bush was. If it were not for the blatantly obvious (to most Americans now...largely due to the internet) lies that stank up America with the WMD and mushroom clouds scare tactics that the Bush regime brazenly lied to the people with, Obama may have also had a chance to lie us into invading Iran.
There is a very interesting video...a lecture..on youtube from John Mearsheimer at the Center for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) on lying in international politics. He also has a book out on the subject.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzNFnm1T6r8
If the wealthiest people in the country and all corporations that do business in this country, paid at least as much income tax, social security tax, and other taxes as the middle class and poor people pay, we would have enough money to pay for free health care, free education through the university level, and other absolutely necessary social services. And we can rebuild our manufacturing base and thereby rebuild our economy, simply by putting tariffs on all imported goods- especially from countries that use prison labor, slave labor, and serf labor, and that have no environmental laws, worker's rights laws, unemployment, and so on.
And sooner or later, pretty much all poor and middle class people will realize that the republicans have been spoon-feeding them bull___, and they'll demand the above measures, and any politician who doesn't deliver will get voted out. And if the republicans persist with their election frauds, we will surely return to paper ballots and then they will be forced to quit engaging in election fraud.
We need to nationalize all American banks, as well as all banks that have facilities in America and whose main source of income is from America, and half of the profits from all oil that is taken from American land or American waters should be given to the American government or confiscated by it. All American insurance companies should be nationalized. Foreign insurance companies that do business in America should pay taxes on every penny of income- not gross income, not net profit, not adjusted income, not income after loopholes, but ALL income; if they can't afford to do that, well, they can go lie to and cheat people in other countries.
All individual income in excess of $500,000 a year (including perks, benefits, options, and ALL other forms of income, potential income, contingent income, and deferred income, should be immediately taxed at 65% as soon as the individual is paid, and if they don't like it, they can go do business in and own, lease, rent, or be given residence in houses in some other country; for instance, they could live and do business in China or Russia, if they feel "taken advantage of" in America.
Why couldn't everyone be taxed the same percent? Seems to me that would be more fair.
I don't understand why everyone is so upset or why they think there's inequality. I mean if there was inequality in America, Americans would be doing something instead of talking about it wouldn't they? Sure they would! That's why there is no inequality. I'm also hearing about a lot of Republicans changing parties. Why would they do that when their vote is just about to count for them and they will be able to live that American dream they've been promised? Oh well, I'm just sittin' here waiting for that new money we will all be getting soon and trying to figure out which religion I'm going to choose since Christianity isn't on the list. I wish I could stick around and try to answer this question a little better, but I found a couple of empty coke cans today and I'm on my way to the recycling company. I hope you all get it figured out.
Looks like CIA may have hooked up w/Pakistani intel to give Cheney (and Bush) an excuse to profit big time in Iraq. Check out http://www.linktv.org/programs/911press, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSVgnsIJH4Y, or http://www.911pressfortruth.com/
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Prioritieswe have now hit the biggest disparity of wealth the U.S. has ever seen a study that fails to include capital gains, so, double that, at least.
Most major corporations (about 57%) pay zero federal income taxes according to a 2008 Government Accountability Office study, and the wealthiest 1%, on average, pay a much lower percentage - between 16 and 18% of their income for the top 1% of households and 8% of income for the top .01 according to the CBO - than majority of the U.S. But these are the same people that are extinguishing unemployment benefits while ignoring the absence of job opportunities, and attempting to cut social programs because they "don't want to give their tax money to people who don't work for it"? What tax money could they be referring to? Have they started paying their fair share?
In 1970 the top 100 CEOs earned approximately $45 for every dollar earned by the average worker. By last year, it was $1,081 to one. There is no justifiable economic theory that can explain this gap.
We are told the rich "create the jobs", maybe, but then they are shipped out of the country for cheaper labor. We give them tax break after tax break, even during these troubled times, they still make a profit. Why aren't we holding them responsible? The CEO's took most of the money; they didn't expand, nor did they hire. That's what it was intended for, was it not?
Corporations could just as easily provide jobs and not ship them over seas at slightly less profit, is this really that much more of a sacrifice than you would ask any sovereign individual for their country? If the courts are going to give corporate interests more rights than actual citizens, shouldn't those corporations be forced to accept the responsibilities that come with joining a society? They can buy and sell policy more openly than ever, by doing it anonymously. They constantly benefit from a national "insurance"/subsidy plan that they have never paid into. And they are still given passes? The are still being allowed to ignore their contibution into the system that supports them?
Talk about redistribution! Talk about a FREE RIDE! Talk about welfare Queens! The redistribution and "stealing my money" doesn't get much worse than taking it away from public infrastructure, programs, and jobs; and then giving it to multi-billion dollar corporations that got off the hook for paying into the pot at all!
Thanks Thom. For helping us speak truth to power
@Sandlewould:
Yes, please do go on...sounds very interesting! There has to be a lot of people who were hired, employed, by these insiders who know a lot more than they are saying about 911. Many of them, I highly suspect, drank the neocon-neoliberal cool-aid and are probably sold on the necessity of what they did. Others are most probably too afraid to say anything...just like in Nazi Germany some people paid dearly for speaking out against Nazis. Problem is that when the masses are too dumbed down and afraid to think the unthinkable...not to mention the effect it would have on their beliefs in America-the-beneficent being shattered into America-the-wicked....they would tend to preserve the lies. What are a couple of thousand civilians lives in the WTC anyway when these neocon/neoliberal criminals have obviously sent many thousands more of our men and women, sons and daughters to die for a lie in the Middle East? What are a couple of thousand 911 lives compared to the many thousands, or perhaps eventually, many hundreds of thousands of American citizens who have lost their savings, retirement funds, homes, health care, and eventually even being unable to feed themselves or their families eventually resulting in mass starvation. Don't think it will happen here? Don't think it is already happening? Then, people, just keep your minds closed and your mouths shut and continue to go along with the current neocon/neoliberal propaganda agenda.
The problem is that the voting machines can be hacked and an election can be rigged without a way to check. The voters’ printouts are also changed and the voters and an individual’s vote can actually be subtracted from his candidate and added to the candidate that he did not vote for. It’s simply a matter of who gets the most votes. These easily hackable machines should be outlawed and replaced. “Carefully Monitored Paper Ballots” (although also open to rigging, but more detectable rigging, easily monitored especially with great effort in vigilance) appears to be the best way to have your vote and everyone’s vote count.
You may also want to research the shenanigans of the last elections in Pahrump NV.
Check out the URL below and see how easily, in just 7 minutes, these machines can be made to throw an election. The People need to know that this is the probable way of future elections or it may never change. The People need to get behind the change. The URL will discuss and link you to Princeton and UCSB studies on the nasty machines.
http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2010/10/daily-topics-friday-october-15th-2010
I agree with you re. 911. My friends brother was in the FBI at the time...munitions expert...I could go on.
Thanks again for another great show, Thom,
I have often wondered just when we might become the united states republic of China. Too bad they don't speculate on labor the way they speculate on oil. Wouldn't it be great if they drove up the cost of labor and actually had to pay for it? As I talk to my neighbors here in rural KY, I am struck by how many want to buy local, but it's either unavailable or too expensive. God knows labor is available here, but global companies can no longer afford American workers. In order to avoid being hostily consumed by their competition, they must shop for labor in the cheapest markets. I am not siding with any CEOs here. They have come to view us as greedy spoiled brats because we won't work in deplorable conditions for .10 cents/hr.
As for education? '#@*sigh...Lots of money to be made. Throw 'em out on their ears and open a nahahieece prahahvitt schuool! Regroup, Reorganize, keep fighting!
Sophia
Maysville, KY
The pundits are predicting that China’s standard of living will reach or even surpass the standard of living for the United States of Mortal Sin.
OUR ANTI-CHRIST NATION HAS AN IMMORAL ETHOS MENTALITY. AMERICAN VALUES CONTINUOUSLY EMBRACE IMMORAL VALUES AS THEIR WAY TO SALVATION.
The United States of Mortal Sin is a damned nation.
It seems that it easier to hide a Jack Ass than it is to hide an Elephant.
Most of the uninformed public won't even care! Money talks, so it will continue.
I think the "divine right of kings" came more from the Holy Roman Empire. Once the Pope crowned a political leader, it became a bandwagon, even though the "holy" moniker went back and forth between the French and Germans without delegitimizing whichever one didn't have it. The second, and possibly more important, step was when an emperor tried to excommunicate the pope and suffered for it.
Heh. We sound like Adams and Jefferson, arguing over whether state ruins church or church ruins state.
Money rules in America.. Money can get the voters to do whatever the big money interests want.. And they want nuclear power because its profitable for them (but the worst of all possible choices for people)..
I live in Nevada and it's here too. Schools are slashed I've worked 30years in this area and have been unemployed for a year and a half. But that is not why I'm writing. I don't know who to ask to find out about the election fraud I suspect is happening here since Dean Heller bought the new voting machines while he was secretary of state. It's odd because he hasn't seemed to campaign at all in the last two elections he was in, and yet he won them both. How do we check that there isn't some % transfer of votes on these machines. I hope you get this message.
Thanks Scott Riggs
Agreed! But futhermore, we should not be surprised that Christianity is so entwined with politics. When Christianity was in it's infancy, competing with many other similar salvation oriented belief systems, it was fragmented with many conflicting concepts coming out of interpretations of Jesus' message. The Roman Empire was also in turmoil as it was breaking up. It was Emperor Constantine, recognising the political uses of religion who declared he was miraculously "converted" to Christianity. He then gathered certain Christian leaders and set the approved standards for Orthodox Christianity, which handily enforces the idea of the political leadership as appointed by God, and denigrates women, self responsibility, and free choice. It also declared as Heresy those groups which had woman leaders, democratic ideas, and anything else that did not enforce the Monarchy.
You take a plane,
Followed by a train,
And then you go
For a walk in the rain.
Then some guy tells you that you're covered with radioactive water.